The Irish Health Service Executive launched its annual seasonal flu vaccination campaign on Monday. A nurse is pictured giving a pregnant mother a vaccine as her young son looks on.
Photo by: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

Ireland's Eye: What's going on in the old sod this week

The Irish Health Service Executive launched its annual seasonal flu vaccination campaign on Monday. A nurse is pictured giving a pregnant mother a vaccine as her young son looks on.
Photo by: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

Dublin People

Elderly Woman Assaulted

THERE was shock and outrage in Athy following reports that an 84-year old woman local woman was sexually assaulted and robbed in her home on a recent Wednesday night.
The Kildare Nationalist understands that the woman answered her door sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 p.m. to two men, one of whom was white and one black.
It is understood that the men shoved in the door and entered the woman's home. Once inside the house it is understood that they proceeded to punch the woman before sexually assaulting her. The victim was on a list for a security chain to be fitted to her door in the very near future.
Reacting with shock to news of the horrific ordeal suffered by the woman, the chairman of Age Action Athy Martin Chanders said, “Any attack on a person that age is a despicable act perpetrated by cowards. Older people need to be a little more cautious about opening their doors to anyone they don't know without first using a security chain. Particularly now with the evenings closing in I would urge people to be particularly vigilant.”
Gardai (police) in Athy were unable to go into the specific details of the incident except to confirm that they are “investigating an incident of that nature.”

Kildare Nationalist
Man Smashes Window

A YOUNG man put his fist through a window in a restaurant because he "snapped" over bad news he had just received about a relative.
Dean Smith, 22, smashed in the window of the McDonald's restaurant with a punch when he received a phone call that his aunt had been taken to intensive care in hospital. He was caught by Gardai as he fled from security near the scene in Tallaght.
Judge James McDonnell ordered him to carry out 240 hours of community service when he admitted a charge of criminal damage in the incident.
Smith, with an address at Corbally Heath, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to damaging the window at McDonald's in Tallaght on August 7.
Sergeant Bernard Jones told the court Gardai saw two security men chasing Smith into the car park of the nearby Abberley Court Hotel at 3 a.m. The security staff said the accused had punched and smashed the window.
Smith was "quite aggressive" and was arrested and taken to Tallaght Garda Station.
The court heard he had previous convictions for burglary, possession of drugs and criminal damage.
"He was in McDonald's and got a phone call which gave him some very bad news," his solicitor said. "He snapped after this phone call and smashed the window."